Saturday, October 31, 2009

Camp 21 Sardine Valley

From: daeppley@comcast.net

Do you have any information on Camp 21 in Sardine Valley north of Stampede Reservoir? Based on the many old beer cans in the area I would guess the camp was operating 1936-37 making it part of the Hobart Mills operation rather than a Boca - Loyalton Railroad operation. The remaining wood foundations look like they may be old railroad cars, not cabins, but the track and wheels are all gone. I can't find any detailed history of the operation of the Railroad or of the camps. The museum list a stereograph of Camp 21, but it is not available on line.

2 Comments:

Camp 21 in Sardine Valley was the Hobart Estate loggers camp. The "wood foundations" are the remains of skid shacks that were left there at the end of operations. During the time of Verdi Lumber Co. and Boca & Loyalton operations through the area where Camp 21 is located, the site was named Merrill. See Railroads of Nevada, V.1 p.412, Myrick, for map of that time. The Hobart Estate engine house burned about 1930, but the remains are still visible of where it was. In fact, a smoke jack was still lying on the ground the last time I was there and the remains of the gravity feed ramp for fueling engines is somewhat visible.See ... a couple of photos:

I am confident that none of the Hart photographs record any logging (or other) activity in Sardine Valley.

One of the two Hart cards linked by captions to a "Camp 21" is of the excavation through Prospect Hill. That is across the hill from you, between Alta and Blue Canyon, adjacent to the Drum Forebay exit on I-80. I think the other caption reference to a "Camp 21" is actually a mistake. I'm pretty sure the photo reference intended is to Camp 24, at the second crossing of the Truckee River. However, there may well have been a Camp 21 along the Truckee as there were Camps 16 (Prosser Creek), 18 (Clinton), 19 (just west of the first crossing), 20 (Iceland), 24, and 26 (third crossing). If so, it seems to me it would have been somewhere near where Floriston was later established. It seems a bit odd that the company would have duplicated their numbers (from one side of the Sierra to the other), but it does indeed seem that construction camp numbers were indeed resued. These camp numbers are all Central Pacific construction camps. The Camp 21 in Sardine Valley was a different animal.